A 73-year-old man has been jailed for four-and-a-half years for raping a woman in her 40s with learning difficulties.

Stewart Winton attacked the victim at his home in Oban, Argyll sometime between April and June 2013 when his wife of 43 years, who uses a wheelchair, was not at home

The woman reported the incident to her support worker, but when Winton was arrested he denied being aware of her learning difficulties and claimed she had consented to sex.

He has now been convicted of her rape following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Jailing him, judge Lady Scott told Winton: "You have been found guilty of the rape of your victim who was incapable of consenting.

"She was obviously vulnerable and and you exploited that vulnerability for your own sexual gratification."

Winton has also been placed on the sex offenders' register.

Advocate depute Kath Harper, prosecuting, told the trial: "This woman's care workers say that she can follow instructions with prompting, but learning new tasks is difficult unless the information is broken down and she has support. On speaking to her, her learning disability would be apparent.

"Her IQ is in the bottom 4% of the population. She is found to have significant impairment in social function which covers awareness of dangers and taking care of herself."

The court heard that the woman was eager to please and get along with people.

Ms Harper said: "Despite the fact she doesn't like confrontation, she could not have made it clearer she did not want to have sexual contact with Stewart Winton.

"She was frightened and told him, 'no, no Stewart, stop it Stewart' and pushed him away.

"And given her eagerness to please this must be a clear sign that she really didn't like what was happening."

When questioned by police, Winton told them: "It did happen to be honest with you. It was just one of those stupid things I did.

"My wife wasn't in at the time and she didn't seem to bother. I probably forced it a little bit."

The jury convicted him of rape after hearing that at the start of the police interview Winton had lied and said: "There was no actual intercourse or nothing."